Future Echo
by DarkLightShades
Summary: Street Sharks Fanfic: Tales from the future that was overwritten. The four Shark brothers disappear without a trace, and without them Fission City is doomed to fall.
1. Sickle Moons and Cold Coffee

**Author's Note:** Since a few of my challenge fics are following this trend, I figured they deserved a story of their own. These tales are from the Fission City Future-that-never-was, based on the episode 'Shark to the Future' where the brothers were sent through time, and thus weren't around to defend the city when Paradigm finally took over. For anyone who does remember how that turned out on the actual show, it'd be no wonder I'm warning for angst.

"_Sickle moons and Cold Coffee"_

Dread was a sharp, twisting feeling in his gut. Bends stared out the window silently, not even feeling the goosebumps rising on his arms as the glass sucked the final vestiges of heat from the room. Lena, quiet as a cat, crept in beside him and forced a cup of coffee into his numb hands. The ceramic scalded his fingers. He didn't even notice.

It took her a few minutes to work up the courage to break the heavy silence. "I don't think-"

"Shh," he hushed her absently. He didn't want to hear it. It wasn't quite real yet, and he didn't want it to be. Words were the construct for truth, and he was happier without it.

But she wasn't about to indulge his childish fantasy. "Bends, we have to talk about this. I don't think they're coming back."

"I know." He'd known since the afternoon news special that had shown the scorched crater that had once been on of Paradigm's labs. He knew it from the strangling humidity in the air, and the skin-tingling itch that seemed to protest all was not well in the world. He knew it because the sky was a sickly shade of green and the Moon was a silver sickle that cast neither light nor hope on the world.

He really did know. He just didn't want to think about what that meant.

Paradigm was, against all odds, revoltingly alive, and he'd made sure they all knew it. He'd played the role of unwitting victim perfectly in his interview, despairing over how frequently he was targeted by the terrible Street Sharks and making a few smug comments about how he didn't think they were going to be much of a problem anymore. 

_Self-Destruction_, he'd called it. _Creatures so full of hate they'd been completely consumed by it, constantly striving to find an end to their own existence._ A tragedy, a terrible shame, but better for everyone. It was the only time Bends had seen Lena lose her composure and scream at the television, but all he could think about was how he'd known Clint since preschool. He'd been there when the brothers had lost their first dog, when Coop had made the football team. A huge chunk of his life had been ripped away, and he wasn't quite sure how to go on living without it. Better to pretend it was still there.

Lena was braver than he was. They were both suffering from the same wound, but somehow she'd found a way to carry on in spite of it. Vengeance was a powerful motivator, and beneath her cool tone of rationality he heard something that burned like molten lava.

_Creatures so full of hate…_

Maybe they weren't powerful like the brothers had been, but now the battle was deadly personal, and with the city at stake the couldn't afford to stay uninvolved for long. He finally tore his eyes away from the window and took a tentative sip of his cooling coffee.

_.:As always, reviews are met with much love. :3:._


	2. Losing by Inches

**Author's Note:** For the record, this is where creative interpretation gets its workout. As far as I remember, Lena was never in the Future episodes, and she never had a daughter. Kaye is the dual creation of Luna Tiger and myself, and her father is very much open to your own interpretation.

"_Losing by Inches"_

It was hard to tell exactly when things had started going badly for them. For so long it had seemed like they were holding their own; just enough to slow Paradigm down but never quite enough to take him out for good. There was a stalemate for a long time, where Bends and Lena had to work hard to convince potential allies of the danger, Paradigm could simply brainwash his troops into doing whatever he said.

The day he perfected his mind control formula was a terrible blow. Even Bolton couldn't figure out how to counteract it.

Short sightedness and temper tantrums had always been Paradigm's greatest short comings – weaknesses that they tried to exploit as often as possible – but once things started going his way the Doctors' genius became apparent. Even Lena's inside information wasn't enough for them to keep up.

They lost the city by inches; first the ruling council, then the slums. Even the few people unaffected by the mind control couldn't leave once they'd been changed. The military was ordered to shoot alters on sight, and a perimeter was set up around the city, keeping the problem contained, but not wanting to risk going in themselves.

This wasn't a war where people died; the alternative was much worse. Every person captured was force fed the gene-slamming formula, and soon they were happy to fight at the doctors' side and spill every secret they knew. It made sense that the military didn't want to risk that, but Bends was always bitter about how they simply left the civilians to fend for themselves. There was safety outside the city…but that's only if you managed to make it that far.

Bends didn't want to leave, even if Lena occasionally wondered aloud if they should. They'd been fighting too long, and it was all too personal now. Bends wasn't going to quit until Paradigm was stopped, one way or another. The outside world was happy to just sit back while the city tore itself apart from the inside, but Bends wasn't going to let Paradigm just take the city like he'd always wanted. The mere thought of it made him sick. So many sacrifices they'd made…he didn't want it all to be for nothing.

Lena was different though. She had a daughter to take care of, and Fission City was no place to be raising a child anymore, but she stubbornly refused to leave. Once you got out, you could never get back in, and even after so long she still hoped that things might get better. Kaye had her mothers' dark eyes and stubborn chin, and always told her Uncle Bends he was being silly whenever the topic came up. Family was always supposed to be with you, no matter what.

He wasn't quite ready to disillusion her of that notion just yet. Hope was a fragile thing, better left to those a bit less jaded than himself, but it was nice to keep such people close at hand.

_.:More to come soon:._


End file.
